Chapter 8 - VANESSA'S LAST CONFESSION
Dominic refused to go alone.
He sent two trusted security officers ahead of him, kept Marcus on a separate communications line, and arranged for police to monitor the location without approaching unless he gave the signal.
The meeting place was an abandoned private club near the East River, a building once used for Moretti family celebrations before Victor's financial crimes became public whispers.
Vanessa waited in the empty ballroom.
She wore no jewelry except the gold necklace Lily had recognized. Without the champagne, the designer dress, and the audience she usually commanded, she looked smaller.
Dominic entered.
“You threatened my daughter.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“I didn't send that photograph.”
“But you know who did.”
“Yes.”
“Then start talking.”
She swallowed.
“Victor had people watching Isabella long before the crash. He knew she was investigating him. I helped him obtain her files. I gave him the schedule for the night she planned to meet you.”
Dominic's face hardened.
“You knew she was pregnant.”
“I knew.”
“And you still helped him.”
“I wanted you.” Her voice rose. “I was in love with you, Dominic. I thought if Isabella disappeared, you'd eventually move on.”
“You thought I would love you because the woman I loved had been taken from me?”
“I thought time would change things.”
“Time changed nothing. It just gave you seven years to become someone I couldn't recognize.”
Vanessa looked away.
“Victor promised Isabella would be sent somewhere safe. I didn't know about the crash until afterward.”
“Then you discovered she survived.”
She nodded.
“I found her medical file. She was using another name. I paid to have her records sealed because I was afraid she would come back.”
“Afraid of what?”
“That you would leave me.”
Dominic stared at her with something colder than anger.
“You let a sick woman raise my daughter in poverty because you were afraid of losing a man who never belonged to you.”
Vanessa began to cry.
“I know what I did.”
“No. You know what it cost you.”
He placed a small recorder on the table.
“Tell me who else was involved.”
Vanessa's hands shook.
“Michael handled the transfers. Victor arranged the crash. Your father agreed to stay silent afterward.”
“And the person who sent the photograph?”
She hesitated.
“Someone who was supposed to be dead.”
Dominic waited.
“Victor,” she whispered. “He survived the fire at the old estate. He staged his death five years ago when the authorities began investigating the missing money.”
Dominic's expression didn't change, but his pulse hammered.
“Where is he?”
“I don't know exactly. He uses different names. But he's been staying at a private property on Long Island. The address is in my phone.”
She slid the phone across the table.
Dominic didn't pick it up.
“Why should I believe you?”
“Because I have the original transaction records. Victor kept copies in case he ever needed to control me. They show where the money went, who signed the medical orders, and who paid the driver.”
“Give them to the police.”
“I will. But I need you to understand something first.”
“I've heard enough.”
“No, you haven't.” Vanessa looked directly at him. “The crash wasn't meant to kill Isabella. It was meant to kill you.”
Dominic froze.
“Explain.”
“Victor knew Isabella had evidence. He believed you'd come with her to the old estate. The driver was supposed to force both of you off the road. But you never arrived. Isabella went alone.”
Dominic remembered the message from years ago telling him to meet Isabella at the estate. He had never received it. He'd been diverted to a business emergency arranged by Victor.
His absence had saved his life.
And left Isabella alone.
Vanessa pushed the phone closer.
“I can help you stop him.”
“Why now?”
“Because Victor has decided I'm no longer useful.”
A door slammed somewhere behind the ballroom.
Vanessa flinched.
Dominic turned toward the sound.
Two men entered from a side corridor, wearing dark coats. One raised a gun.
“Put the recorder down,” he ordered.
Dominic moved behind a stone pillar as the first shot shattered a window. Vanessa screamed and dropped to the floor.
Marcus's voice crackled through Dominic's earpiece.
“Sir, we're moving in.”
The two men advanced.
Dominic stayed low, waiting for the opening he'd planned for. When one man crossed the pillar, he struck his wrist and knocked the weapon away. The second fled through the side door as security officers rushed inside.
Vanessa was still on the floor, clutching her shoulder.
Blood darkened the fabric of her dress.
Dominic knelt beside her.
“Where's Victor?”
She tried to speak, then coughed.
“Long Island. The address…”
She pressed the phone into his hand.
“There's something else.”
“Save your strength.”
“No.” Her eyes filled with tears. “I changed one of Isabella's medical reports. I made it look as if she had died. Victor used it to convince your father that she was gone.”
Dominic's jaw tightened.
“Why tell me now?”
“Because Lily deserves the truth. And because I don't want to die with another lie between us.”
The ambulance arrived minutes later.
As paramedics carried Vanessa away, Marcus examined the phone. It contained a property address, a series of bank transfers, and a recording marked with the date of Isabella's crash.
He played it.
Victor's voice emerged.
“Make sure the girl doesn't survive. If Isabella lives, the child is the only thing that can make her return.”
A second voice answered.
Not Vanessa's.
Not Michael's.
A woman.
“Understood.”
Dominic stared at Marcus.
“Who is that?”
Marcus replayed the recording.
Then he looked up, visibly shaken.
“Sir, I know that voice.”
“Whose is it?”
Marcus swallowed.
“Your mother.”
Dominic's mother had supposedly died when he was twelve.
May you like
But on the recording, her voice was unmistakable.
And she was giving Victor instructions to make sure Isabella's unborn child never survived.
